Elastic fluid power plant



Junev 20, 1933- P. DETTENBORN 1,915,052

ELASTIC FLUID POWER PLANT Filed May 3, 1932 Invenpor: Paul Dentenborn,

His Attorneg.

Patented June 20, 1933 1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PAUL DETTENBORN, OF BERLIN-STEGLITZ, GERMANY, AESSIG-NOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK ELASTIC FLUID POWER PLANT Application filed May 3, 1932, Serial No. 608,907, and in Germany May 18, 1932.

The present invention relates to elastic Referring to the drawing, 1 and 2 desigfluid power plants, more particularly to the nate the elastic fluid generators or boilers arrangement of reheaters or intermediate sufor supplying elastic fluid such as steam to perheaters, or like apparatus for superheatan elastic fluid engine shown as two turbines ing or reheating elastic fluid. or elastic fluid consumers, a high pressure t-ur- 50 It is known to use the fire gases of a boiler bine 3 and a low pressure turbine &. 5 is the for superheating or reheating elastic fluid. conduit for conveying the steam from the In order to obtain the desired temperature boilers to the inlet of the high pressure turot-the superheated elastic fluid and to prebine 3, whence a portion thereof may be con- 19 vent burning of the conduits in the superveyed directly to the low pressure turbine 4 55 heater, it is necessary to regulate the heat through a conduit 6 including a valve means transferred to the reheater or superheater. 7. 8 is a condenser for the low pressure tur- Difliculties, however, may arise in case of bine. fluctuating load conditions, particularly at For reheating at least a portion of the ex- 15 a sudden decrease in load where it is not poshaust steam from high pressure turbine 3, I 60 sible to decrease the amount of heat transprovide two reheaters 9 and 10 respectively ferred to the superheater or reheater fast which in the present instance are shown as enough to prevent damage of the heating apbeing combined with boilers 1 and 2 respecparatus by the fire gases. tively to form single units therewith. With One object of my invention is to provide such an arrangement the fire gases leaving 65 an improved arrangement of superheaters the boiler pass through the reheater and conor reheaters or like elastic fluid heating ap- Vey heat to the fluid to be reheated. The inparatus whereby burning thereof is prelets 11 and 12 of the reheaters are connected vented. to inlet conduits 13 and 14 respectively.

5 Another object of my invention is to pro The latter are connected to a supply conduit 7 vide an improved arrangement for regulat- 15, which in turn is connected to the exhaust ing the load on a superheater or reheater of the high pressure turbine. The outlets 16 and equally distributing a load among a pluand 17 of the reheaters are connected by outrality of reheaters. let conduits 18 and 19 respectively to a dis- Sc Still another object of my invention is to charge conduit 20, which in turn is connected provide temperature regulating means for a to inlet 21 of the low pressure turbine. It

reheater between a high pressure and a low will be noted that the two reheaters are conpressure elastic fluid engine whereby a connected in parallel between the high pressure stant temperature of the fluid supplied to the and the low pressure turbines.

low pressure engine is maintained. The arrangement so far described may be So For a consideration of What I believe to considered as typical of any arrangement for be novel and my invention, attention is direheating the exhaust elastic fluid of a high rected to the following description and the pressure engine and conveying the superclaims appended thereto in connection with heated elastic fluid to a low pressure engine.

the drawing which forms a part of my speci- Provided in conduits and are valve 85 fication. means 22 and 23 respectively for manually In the drawing I have shown by way of regulating the amount of steam passed example a reheating arrangement of the type through the reheaters. This regulation may specified in combination with a compound also be performed by properly adjusting turbine embodying my invention. valve means 7 in conduit 6. In order to maintain substantially constant the temperature of the fluid passed through the superheaters or reheat-ers I provide means for automatically regulating the amount of steam or like elastic fluid passed through the reheaters. This has been shown in the present instance as comprising valve means 24 and 25 provided in conduits 13 and 14 respectively. These valve means are regulated or adjusted by means of temperature responsive devices 26 and 27 respectively in terms of temperature of the steam in conduits 18 and 19 respectively. Each temperature responsive device includes a casing 28 divided into a lefth and and right-hand half by a diaphragm 29 connected to the movable member of the valve means and biased towards closing position by a spring means 30 between the left-hand half and the diaphragm. Communicating with the right-hand half is a pipe 31 having a sealed end projecting into conduit 18.

Temperature responsive devices of this kind are known. Their operation is as follows: An increase in temperature of the fluid passed through outlet conduit 18 causes an increase in pressure of a gas contained in tube 31 and the space defined by the right-hand half of the casing and the diaphragm, to the effect that the expanding gas in the casing causes valve 24 to be moved towards opening position. Thus, if the temperature of the superheated steam increases, valves 24 and 25 are moved towards open position, to the effect that more steam is passed through the reheaters and less steam is passed through conduit 6, with the result that the temperature of the steam supplied to the low pressure turbine after being reheated remains substantially constant. Valve means 24 and 25 and the temperature responsive devices for adjusting these valve means in my arrangement also cause a uniform distribution of load among the reheaters connected in parallel, that is, if for example the available heat of the fire gases increases in one of the reheaters, for instance, of reheater 1, it causes an opening of valve 24, to the effect that relatively more steam is passed through reheater 1 and less steam through reheater 2.

According to my invention I provide safety valve means for discharging elastic fluid from the reheaters when the temperature thereof reaches a certain value and means for passing live elastic fluid through the reheaters. In the present instance I have shown a safety valve 32 in supply conduit 20 for discharging elastic fluid to the atmosphere or any suitable point such as a preheater, not shown, 33 is a temperature responsive device similar to the temperature responsive devices 26 and 27 and including conduit means 34 and 35 having sealed ends projecting into thereheaters 9 and 10 respectively. If the temperature in one of the reheaters increases beyond a certain value, a gas contained in conduits 34 and 35 expands and causes opening of the safety valve. 36 is a conduit for directly conveying live elastic fluid from conduit 5, through conduit 15, to the reheaters. Provided in this conduit is a valve means 37 which is regulated by a pressure responsive device 39 including a conduit 40 connected to conduit 15. Pressure responsive device 39 is similar to the temperature responsive devices described above except that conduit 40 has an open end connected to conduit 15 so that the pressure of the elastic fluid passed through conduit 15 acts directly on the diaphragm provided in casing 41. A certain decrease in pressure in conduit 15 causes opening of valve 37, and vice versa.

The operation of the arrangement is as follows: A suddent decrease of load on the turbine causes a corresponding decrease of the amount of steam passed through the reheaters. This effects an increase in tempera ture of the reheated elastic fluid. As soon as the temperature reaches a certain predetermined value, the temperature responsive device 33 causes the safety valve or blow-ofl' valve to open. This causes a sudden decrease in pressure in conduits 20 and 15, to the effect that the pressure responsive device 39 connected to conduit 15 eifects opening of valve 37, thus permitting live elastic fluid be ing directly supplied from conduit 5, through conduit 15, to the reheaters 9 and 10. The circulation of live elastic fluid through the reheaters prevents burning of the latter. The live elastic fluid supplied to the reheaters through conduit 36 forms a cooling medium for the reheaters. Thus, from another aspect, conduit 36, valve 37 and the pressure responsive devices for regulating this valve form in substance a means for conducting a cooling medium to the reheater or reheaters in terms of pressure conditions existing in the supply or discharge conduit.

lVith my invention I have accomplished a simple and reliable arrangement for protecting reheaters, superheatcrs'and like heating apparatus against the danger of burning of the pipes or conduits thereof during periods of low load of an apparatus to which the superheated elastic fluid is supplied, that is. when little elastic fluid is being conveyed through the superheaters.

Having described the method of operation of my invention, together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention may be carried out by other means.

hat I claim as new and desire to secure y Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a reheating arrangement, an elastic fluid consumer, a reheater, aconduit for conducting fluid from the consumer to the reheater, another conduit for discharging fluid from the reheater, another elastic fluid consumer connected to the other conduit, safety valve means in the discharge conduit, means including a device responsive to temperature changes of the reheater for actuating the safety valve means, and means including a valve for supplying cooling fluid to the reheater in terms of pressure changes in one of the first named conduits.

2. In a reheating arrangement, an elastic fluid consumer, a plurality of fire gas-heated reheaters, a fluid supply conduit receiving fluid from the consumer, a fluid discharge conduit, another elastic fluid consumer connected to the discharge conduit, an inlet conduit for each reheater connected to the supply conduit, an outlet conduit for each reheater connected to the discharge conduit, a valve means in each inlet conduit, temperature responsive devices for controlling said valve means in response to the temperature changes in the corresponding outlet conduits, a safety valve in the discharge conduit, means for actuating the safety valves in response to temperature changes of one of the reheaters, and means for supplying cooling fluid to the supply conduit in response to fluid pressure changes in said supply conduit.

3. In a power plant, an elastic fluid generator, an elastic fluid engine receiving elastic fluid from the generator, a fire gas-heated reheater for superheating the exhaust elastic fluid of the engine, a consumer receiving elastic fluid from the reheater, and means for automatically supplying live elastic fluid to the reheater in terms of pressure conditions of the exhaust elastic fluid of the engine to prevent burning through of the reheater.

4. In a. power plant, an elastic fluid generator, an elastic fluid engine receiving elastic fluid from the generator, a fire gas-heated reheater for superheating the exhaust elastic fluid of the engine, a consumer receiving superheated elastic fluid from the reheater, means for supplying live elastic fluid to the reheater in terms of pressure conditions of the exhaust elastic fluid of the engine, safety valve means for the reheater, and means for operating the safety valve means in terms of temperature conditions of the reheater.

5. In a power plant, elastic fluid generating means, a high pressure and a low pressure engine, a conduit for conveying elastic fluid from the generating means to the high pressure engine, another conduit including a valve means for conveying a portion of the exhaust elastic fluid of the high pressure engine to the low pressure engine, a fire gasheated reheater, a supply conduit for conveying exhaust elastic fluid of the high pressure engine to the reheater, a. discharge conduit for conveying the superheated elastic fluid from the reheater to the low pressure my hand.

PAUL DETTENBORN. 

